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The Real Path

Norman Fischer explains why it’s suffering that gives us the incentive, vision, and strength to transform our lives.
This article is available in PDF format, for download.

The most astonishing fact of human life is that most of usthink it’s possible to minimize and even eliminate suffering.We actually think this, which is one reason why it’s so difficultfor us when we’re suffering. We think, “This shouldn’t be thisway,” or “I’m going to get rid of this somehow.” I think manyof us believe that since suffering is so bad and so unpleasant,if we were really good and really smart, it wouldn’t arise inthe first place. Somehow suffering is our own fault. If it’s notour fault, then it’s definitely someone else’s fault. But whensuffering arises, we think we should surely be able to avoidit. We should be able to set it to one side and not dwell on it.We should “move on,” as they say, go on to positive things,do a little Buddhism, meditate, get around the suffering, andgo forward. We shouldn’t allow the suffering to stop us, notallow it to mess us up. We believe that if only we play ourcards right, we could have a positive life without much suffering.We constantly come back to that way of thinking..."

Norman gives his third talk of the Layman P'ang 2018 series on "There You Are" (#8) and "That Which...Norman Fischer, 01/24/18

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